Liangshan made two big leaps from Wang Lun to Chao Gai and then to Song Jiang . During the Wang Lun period, Liangshan was just a bandit who gathered in the mountains and forests. During the Chao Gai period, because he was under the banner of the unrestrained and free green forest heroes, he robbed the rich and helped the poor and avenged his enemies, he attracted a large number of heroes from the martial arts world to join him. Liangshan's strength quickly increased and became a well-known force, but it was also a bandit type and could not cause too much trouble.
The real rise of Liangshan was during the Song Jiang period. Song Jiang, who came out of the officialdom, was obviously higher than the first two. Through power and institutionalization, he built Liangshan to build a powerful uprising army and had the strength to compete with the court.
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Song Jiang and Chao Gai have different backgrounds. Song Jiang was actually unwilling to become a bandit from the bottom of his heart, but in the end there was no way out. The officials forced the people to rebel, and were desperate. They were rescued by the heroes of Liangshan and had no choice but to become a bandit. Chao Gai took the initiative to rob the birthday gift and led his brothers to Liangshan to become bandits. Between active and passive, you can see the essential difference between the two. This is similar to the relationship between Zhai Rang and Li Mi in the Wagangzhai Uprising at the end of the Sui Dynasty. Zhai Rang was a green forest hero, and the rebel army he led had some influence in the surrounding areas; while Li Mi was well-read the classics, history, and had a high vision in the government's top management. Therefore, under the leadership of Li Mi, Wagangzhai had the strength to compete for the world. If it were not for Yu Wen and the attack with Wang Shichong , Li Mi might be able to conquer Luoyang and compete with Li Yuan , which won the Guanzhong . When the author created " Water Margin ", he still borrowed some of the story of Sui and Tang Romance.
Song Jiang may not have the talent of Li Mi or the strategy of Li Mi, but with years of engaging in the officialdom, he has seen it, and his methods are still very unique, which has changed the current situation of Liangshan's small-scale fights. Song Jiang mainly carried out the so-called transformation of Liangshan in terms of routes, personnel and finances. Next, let’s learn about Song Jiang’s changes to Liangshan.
Route Change
. On the revolutionary line: Changes in the political line
If you want to get things done, the revolutionary line is very important. For example, at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang's can have a small role from Red Turban Army , and finally defeated the heroes Chen Youliang and Zhang Shicheng , and then defeated the Mongolian and Yuan government. This is because of the success of Zhu Yuanzhang's revolutionary line, first of which "build high walls, accumulate grain, and slowly become kings". When the time is ripe, we will first solve the most threatening Chen Youliang first, and then solve the problem of Zhang Shicheng and Ming Yuzhen , pacify the south, and finally fight against the Central Plains, laying the foundation for the world in one fell swoop. For example, the late Ming Dynasty Li Zicheng was able to stand out among the many peasant uprising troops because of his words "The King of Breakings will not pay food when he comes." Because of this policy, no matter how many times Li Zicheng was defeated or how many times he was wiped out, as long as he is still alive, he will instantly call for millions of soldiers. No matter how powerful the Ming government used, it could not defeat Li Zicheng. As strong as Sun Chuanting , he also ended up defeating the Tongguan battle and dying for his country.
Real Songjiang Uprising has no influence in the hundreds of peasant uprisings in the Song Dynasty. Perhaps the author deliberately exaggerated the setting of the Liangshan Uprising in order to expand the influence of the work. In the book, Liangshan could finally become a major event that threatened the rule of the Northern Song Dynasty. Song Jiang played a crucial role in the revision of the Liangshan uprising revolutionary line.
First of all, the plaque in Liangshan lobby was replaced with a name. From the " Juyi Hall " in the Chao Gai era to the " Zhongyi Hall " in the Song Jiang era, it is not only a change in the name, but also a change in development goals. In the past, he was a scattered warrior, and heroes with distinctive personalities do whatever they want. Juyi is more of a green forest, and it is not much different from the bandits on ordinary hills. It is just a group of brothers gathered together because of their like-mindedness, became sworn brothers, and lived and died together.But it is different to change to "loyalty and righteousness". Here we can see that Song Jiang still has a loyal minister and a filial son towards the Northern Song Dynasty court. Song Jiang did not look down on the theory of Green Lin at all. What he yearned for was the set of rules restricted by the sages.
Song Jiang's way of heaven
Then, the slogan of Liangshan was changed to "Walk for heaven". Compared to the previous robbery, the way of fighting for heaven is obviously much higher. From then on, Liangshan almost no longer robbed ordinary families, but changed his thinking and began to rob the wealth, that is, to exercise morality for heaven and attack those local tyrants and evil gentry who are unkind for wealth. This made Liangshan’s robbery business look much more legitimate.
Song Jiang changed the revolutionary line and also sent a signal to the court, which means that I was not trying to rebel, but was loyal and righteous, and helped the court solve those who were rich and unkind. At the same time, it also sent a signal that I could accept revenge. In the past, I dared to rebel against the king of heaven and did not take , Song Dynasty seriously; after Song Jiang's reform line, he only opposed treacherous ministers and bad gentry, not against the court and the emperor.
Liangshan decision-making level
2. In terms of personnel: Starting to become a regime
Compared with the founder Chao Gai, Song Jiang is a more powerful person, so Song Jiang’s confidants are more focused on Wen Tao’s talent. The so-called thugs are reckless men like Li Kui , and there are also people like Wu Song and Hua Rong . Even military generals valued by Song Jiang are both civil and military, such as Lu Junyi and Guan Sheng . In other words, Song Jiang likes to control his subordinates instead of simply oppressing people with force to surrender. Elderly figures similar to Liangshan, such as Liu Tang and Ruan's three heroes, have been greatly reduced after Song Jiang took power.
Song Jiang established Tiangang Disha , corresponding to the stars in the sky, founded the rankings of 108 heroes, and carried out a major reshuffle of power. The main purpose was to build its own management system. Under the setting of Song Jiang, the decision-making level of Liangshan, that is, the central functional departments, arranged this way, itself is the chairman, Lu Junyi is the vice chairman, Wu Yong is the chief of the general staff, Gongsun Sheng is the deputy chief of the general staff, Li Li is the minister of logistics, and Chai Jin is the highest decision-making committee of the minister of finance.
Liangshan rankings
But Song Jiang used Lu Junyi because of his ability and fame, but he was also guarding against him. For example, Lu Junyi was in charge of the training of the entire army, but the military talisman was in the hands of Song Jiang's confidant Hua Rong. Gongsun Sheng is reused because he does have some charlatans and can find a way out in desperate situations, but Liangshan's actual staff is indeed in the hands of his confidant Wu Yong. Li Li is a friend, while Chai Jin is a supporter of Song Jiang, and his identity is closely related to the Song family. Reusing Chai Jin can show his ambiguous relationship with the court. From these we can see that in the decision-making level of Liangshan, Song Jiang's supporters suppressed the unstable factors, and Song Jiang could have the final say.
. For the second level of Liangshan, the second level is naturally the general of the army. This is a bit similar to the founding of the Western Wei back then. The Western Wei was a pillar country, then the general, and then the general below. Liangshan is more compact, and the top military generals are naturally the five tiger generals of the horse army, then the Liangshan Eight Cavalry , and then the ten commanders of the infantry army. The Five Tiger Generals are considered to be the best heroes, while the Eight Cavalry and the Ten Commanders are somewhat of a different quality. For example, the Shi Jin and Mu Hong are ranked in the Eight Cavalry, which is somewhat unrealistic. The Ten Commanders, except for the Lu Zhishen and Wu Song, who are qualified and Li Kui is qualified, the rest of the basic combat power is not good. So the second level, the most representative one is naturally the five tiger generals of the Liangshan horse army. Next, let’s take a look at the candidates for the Five Tiger Generals.
Liangshan second-level
big knife Guan Sheng, leopard head Lin Chong, thunder fire Qin Ming , double gun general Dong Ping , double whip hu Yanzhu .These people not only have great martial arts skills, but also have the same identity. Like Song Jiang, they both worked in the imperial court. In addition to Lin Chong, they basically joined Liangshan for various reasons. To put it simply, they were basically captured by Liangshan using and had no choice but to be "deeply moved" to join the Liangshan camp. These people are essentially different from the real bandits below. They not only have strong business capabilities, but also have a heart to surrender to the court. Of course, except for Lin Chong, Lin Chong may not want to return to the court, but just does not refuse this route. Even so, it will not affect the same heart as the Five Tiger Generals and Song Jiang.
With the decision-making level and the Five Tiger Generals, Liangshan has basically achieved regime transformation. These people are composed of a whole, and the brains of this whole tend to accept reunion. Naturally, the hands and feet below have to go on the path of reunion. These are all things that cannot be done. Because of this, Liangshan has made various preparations for being recruited.
Song Jiang and Chao Gai
3. Financially: To improve Liangshan’s logistics and financial system
After completing the previous route and personnel transformation, the most important thing is to transform Liangshan’s financial system. After all, money and food are the foundation for stabilizing Liangshan.
When we read "Water Margin", it is not difficult to find that since Song Jiang took the top spot, the heroes of Liangshan seem to have become poor. Because in the Chao Gai era, the heroes of Liangshan were of different natures. After all, he relied on the birth date of the robbery, so the brothers naturally lived a very free life, drinking wine and eating meat in big mouthfuls, and dividing gold and silver in scales. So in the Chao Gai era, Baisheng could go for a big gamble, Yanshun could spend a lot of money to please the top brothel.
But as a person who knows the superstructure, Song Jiang understood the importance of building Liangshan treasury and financial system. From then on, the heroes could only get some fixed salary, while Liangshan treasury was saved more and more. This is the important reason why Song Jiang could spend to please Gao Qiu , Su Taiwei and famous prostitutes Li Shishi .
Liangshan Uprising
Song Jiang's first pot of gold after taking office was to fight against Zhujiazhuang three times. After looting the money of Zhujia, Hujia and Li families, the small treasury of Liangshan made a lot of money. Since then, he has basically never been worried about money and grain. Then, he captured Daming City, accepted Lu Junyi's family wealth, and captured Zengtou Temple. After several lootings, Liangshan, without saying anything else, at least the money he had accumulated, had the strength to confront the imperial court for a long time. This is also an important capital that Song Jiang can take action with the court and in-depth negotiations after him.
In other words, Song Jiang has established and improved Liangshan's financial system. It is no longer the days when he has no money to grab it. Liangshan has reserves and financial circulation, and the entire system has become sound. This should be the most important transformation that Song Jiang made to Liangshan in a practical sense.
